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Stocks rose modestly on Monday in quiet trading after the Christmas holidays with the help of big tech companies like Apple and Nvidia.
Trade is expected to be quiet, but potentially volatile, this week as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread rapidly in the US and overseas. But most major investors have closed their positions for 2021 and want to hold their positions until next week.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.9% as of 11:00 am East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.1%.
S&P is on pace to close the year, up nearly 27%, a big year for the stock market.
Last week, the S&P 500 set another record as fears about the potential impact of omycron outbreaks subsided. However, much is still unclear about the variant, which has spread extremely quickly and has led to a return to pandemic restrictions in some places.
Hundreds of flights were canceled over the holiday weekend in the US, and airlines reported staffing issues with COVID. France reported more than 100,000 new cases on record daily.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines all fell more than 2% in early trading.
While hospitals are still under pressure from delta variant infections, authorities in many countries have redoubled their vaccination efforts as omicron outbreaks efforts have eliminated new quarantines.
Asian and European markets were either closed or mostly higher on Monday. While London and Hong Kong closed, the Japanese stock market closed slightly higher.
In other international developments, the Turkish lira depreciated by 5% against the dollar. The currency has fallen sharply this year as the Turkish government tries to revive its economy despite chronically high inflation. The government announced a plan last week to encourage Turks to deposit their money back into lira bank accounts to support the currency.
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